Creating the US: Key documents and their context

- No ethnic community in the USA: many different nations → geographical community

- Core political values unite and keep them together → documents
o They remain permanent
o The oldest constitution (kept their original values)
o Represents general human rights and values → in practice: law
o These were written in a manner that people could easily understand them
o Democratic documents
o Powerful
The Declaration of Independence
- It was written during the War of Independence (1775-1783)
- Ideas of the Enlightenment
- Defence speech
- Civil religion = “all men are created equal”
o Easily applicable for various social movements
o E.g. religion, gender issues, abilities-disabilities, etc.
- The importance of God: people are not allowed to argue God → ultimate power,
everyone must accept it
- Rights:
o Life
o Liberty
o Happiness
- Claims what governments should do
o To serve individuals, to ensure their rights
o If not, people should go against the government → it is their duty to gain
independence
The Constitution:
- The basic structure how the country is run
- Before: The Articles of Confederation
o Similar as a constitution
o It didn’t work → more power needed → 1788: The Constitution
- Declares the relationship between the state and the smaller units
- 1791: first 10 amendments of the Constitution → The Bill of Rights
o All in all, there were 27 amendments, but 2 were abolished
- 1792: more amendments
o Expanding the rights of the people (BUT: 1919: The Prohibition reduced rights)
- Three levels of government:
o Local level
o State level
o Federal level
- The constitution describes how these operate
- The government ensures the rights of the people
- Equals: only a minority (male, female, hetero, with some property, protestant)
- Amendments: a proposal becomes one if the Congress accepts it and every single state
sign it + ratification
o Amendment 1:
 Freedom of religion, press, speech, to assemble, to petition
 So powerful that it overrules other rules
 There is no definition to religion
o Amendment 2: Right to bear arms
 The kind of guns one can carry is limited
 The reason: police is not working efficiently
o Amendment 3: Quartering of soldiers
o Amendment 4: Search and Seizure
 Police cannot search one’s house
 Police cannot take away one’s property
 They need a proper document supported by evidence
o Amendment 5: Trial and Punishment
 Jury = everyday people
 One cannot be taken to court because of the same crime twice
 One cannot be requested to witness against himself, be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law
o Amendment 6: Right to speedy trial and confrontation of witnesses
 Jury selection: examining whether someone is racist, etc to provide an
impartial jury
 One has to be tried in the district of the crime scene
 A reason should be given when arresting someone
 One has the right to have a proper defence lawyer (even with no money)
o Amendment 7: Trial by jury in civil cases
o Amendment 8: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishment inflicted
o Amendment 10: The Powers of the States and People
o Amendment 13: Slavery abolished
 The Emancipation Proclamation
o Amendment 14: Citizenship Rights
 gives citizenship to people who were born in the US or are naturalized
(immigrants)
o Amendment 15: Race no bar to vote
o Amendment 16: Status of Income Tax
 Three levels of taxing
o Amendment 19: Women’s suffrage (1920)
o Amendment 21: Amendment 18 repealed
o Amendment 22: Presidential Term limits
o Amendment 23: Presidential vote for District of Columbia
 gives the right to vote to people living in Washington
o Amendment 24: Poll Tax Barred
o Amendment 25: Presidential Disability and Succession
 when Kennedy got shot
 if removal → Vice President
 
no Vice President → the President chooses it, the House of Congress
confirms
o Amendment 26: Voting age set to 18 years
 Minimum legal drinking age: 21 (nationally)
 Two-tier system: in some states (e. g. Maryland, Carolinas, DC, Illinois)
 Wine and beer: 18
 Liquor: 21
o Amendment 27: Limiting changes to congressional pay
 takes effect after the next election

The country
Big cities:
- Boston: Massachusetts
- New York City: New York
- Philadelphia: Pennsylvania
- Baltimore: Maryland
- Washington: Columbia
- Los Angeles: California
Main parts:
- Center: Central Lowlands
- South-East Coast: Coastal Plains
- West: Rocky Mountain, Sierra Nevada
- Rio Grande: border river between the USA and Mexico
- Colorado river
- Columbia river
Resources:
- Fishing on the ocean lines
- Oil drilling → they buy oil from elsewhere, save theirs
- Mountains: forestry
- Precious metals: e. g. gold, copper
- Coal → mining is not significant
- Farm resources:
o West coast: vegetables, fruit
 California = “fruit basket” of the country
 North: berries
o Mississippi: agriculture is not significant
o Lowland: crops, poultry, cattle
o North: maple trees
o The Amish: agriculture
Industries:
- Construction, extraction, maintenance
- Farming, fishing, forestry
 - Management, professional, and related
- Service
- Production, transportation, material moving
6 major regions:
1. The North East
- Frequented by settlers very early on
- Highly Anglo-Saxon
- The richest, the most highly populated area
- Cosmopolitan
- The centre of arts and entertainment
- Broad leadership financially
- The most educated region
- The highest number of top universities (private and public)
- Mainly urban
- Some agricultural production
- The highest income levels
- Pricey

2. The Southeast
- Agriculture is important
- Service industries
- Highly conservative people
- Deeply religious
- Virginia, North Carolina: historical significance

3. The Midwest
- The heartland of the US → represents the most basic American values (religious, rural,
etc.)
- The educational level is not very high
- The least diverse region (mostly white)
- The safest region of the US

4. The Southwest
- Texas: unique state, shouldn’t belong to the US (very autonomous)
- New Mexico, Arizona: agriculture
- Arizona: retiring, healthcare system
- Oklahoma: Native Americans
- Opposition between New Mexico and Texas (richer because of oil)
o bumper-sticker wars

5. Rocky Mountain
- The least populated
- Mountains, extreme weather conditions
- Winter sports (especially in Colorado)
- Summer: mountain climbing, white water rafting
- Utah: Salt Lake City → Mormons
 o Diverse
o Financial services and businesses
o Nevada: gambling

6. Pacific
- Different
- California:
o Most highly populated
o Hollywood → entertainment industry
o Shaping public opinions
o San Francisco
 Alternative city (hippies, LGBTQ)
 IT industry
 Dynamic
 Virtual university
o Excellent education (Berkeley, UCLA)
- Washington + Oregon:
o Relaxed
o Most liberal places
o No VAT
o Sensitive to the needs of people
o Seattle: IT, entertainment

Inhabiting North America

Four main explorations:
- Spanish
- French
- English
- Dutch (with the Swedish) → center: New York (New Amsterdam)
Native Americans:
- Five main regions:
o Eastern Woodlands
o Plains
o California-Intermountain
o Southwest
o Northwest Coast
- They appeared in North America around 10.000 BC → they came from Asia (mongoloid
types of people) in waves
o The eskimos are the most recent wave
Eastern Woodlands:
- Typically described as settled
- Permanent villages
- Lakes, springs, ocean → fishing
- Agriculture
 - In theory, the puritans met these tribes. They were the ones who showed the puritans
traditional American crops.
- Houses: wooden frame + leaves
o Problem: not permanent
o No physical proof of settlement
- Small reservations
Plains:
- Nomadic tribes
- They followed the buffalos
- They moved when the winter came
- They lived in tipis (round-shaped tents)
o Eight poles covered with fur
- To hunt buffalos, they covered themselves with fur
- Later, they had horses (→ colonizers)
- They were speedy and well-organized
California-Intermountain:
- Hunting did not begin in the mountains
- Fishing → along the coastline
- No agriculture
- Gathering was important → basket-making, pottery
- Mountains: caves
- Coastline: permanent villages
o Somewhat involved in agriculture
- Very well-organized society
- They were engaged in trading with other tribes for money (shells)
Southwest (Pueblo Indians)
- Spanish influence
- The only tribe that built permanent buildings (stones + dobby)
- They built pueblos (towns)
- They used ladders to enter their houses
- They believed that the spirit is in the hair → they never cut their hair
- Agriculture → advanced
o Irrigation system
o Basket-making
o Pottery → geometrical patterns + natural colours (Navahos)
o Rugs
- High level of artisanship (dolls, stones)
- Catholics (Spanish influence, converting the inhabitants)
- Underground caves → practice religion, rituals
o Only men could participate → patriarchal society (although other Indians had
matriarchal societies)
- Mesas: a flat mountain top (famous: Mesa Verde)
- The buildings survived → the tribes can claim the territory to themselves
 - They have a lot of festivals (not welcoming)
- Three cultures: Native Americans, Hispanics, Anglo-Saxons
Northwest Coast:
- Spreads till the eskimos
- Long houses → protects against cold winters
- Totem poles of families
o Represent totemic animals and interrelations between families
o Figurative, stylistic
- Fishermen (ocean) → ships
- High level of social organization → social cohesion
Immigrant waves:
- First wave: 1680-1776
- Old immigrants: 1820-1890
- New immigrants: 1890-1930
- Displaced persons (political, economic reasons): 1930-
First wave of immigrants:
- Era of Exploration: no permanent settlements
- Two English territories: Jamestown (the first) and Virginia (named after Queen
Elisabeth I, Anglican, loyal to the Queen, protestant, Plymouth Plantation)
- Four parts:
o New England colonies
o Middle colonies
o Chesapeake colonies
o Lower South colonies
- By the end of the 18th century, the US reached its current size
- Native Americans: first pushed westwards, then put into reservations
Old immigrants:
- Western and northern Europeans
- Push factor:
o Harsh weather conditions
o Political issues
- Pull factors:
o Huge geographical expansion
- Farmers
- Highly influenced by American laws (Homestead Act → free land)
New immigrants:
- Industrialization
- Especially heavy industry was improving
- Pull factor
o Physical workers needed
- Composition: central, eastern and southern Europe
 - WW1 → make a choice
- Soldierners → they didn’t stay permanently and weren’t planning to
- Nationalization began
- The ones who wanted to stay founded families
Displaced persons:
- Anti-Nazis
- The Jewish / communists
Immigration Laws:
- 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
- 1917: Immigration Act (Literacy Act)
- 1921: National Origins Quota Act (3% of population in 1910)
- 1924: Johnson-Reed Act
o Further restricted NOQA (2%)
o Restricted oriental immigration
- 1965: Immigration Act (East: 170K, West: 120K)
- 1986: Immigration Reform and Control Act
- → Issue of Race / Ethnicity
- Not just a biological category
- Social construction → Hungarian / Irish, etc. were considered people of colour
- Being coloured / white
o Religion
 e.g. Catholics were considered coloured
- 1920s: reunion of families
- 1940s: WW2, Japanese detention camps
o Enemy
o Americans collected them
o Shocking period
o The American government apologised
- The Jewish
o The US insisted on the quota
o Many people were sent back to Europe
o After the war: The Paperclip Group (Nazi scholars’ research group)
- 1986: the US tried to solve immigration
- 1930s: semi-illegal immigrants (Great Depression)
o Cheap labour
- Hispanic population : border-fences
- The majority of Americans identify themselves as of German origin
 Religion
Terms:
- Difference between priest / pastor / minister / bishop
o Priest: catholic
o Pastor & minister: protestant
o Bishop: Mormon
- Cult / sect
o Small, young religious groups with a charismatic founding figure
o Sect: used to be part of a mainstream religion; dissatisfied with the original
church
o Cult: unrelated, new, supplement book (not only the Bible), leadership is by birth
right, unusual practices, own communes, financial issues
- Denomination: religious group without bias
- Church: large and established religious group
- Theocracy: state and church are identified (e.g. Saudi Arabia)
Issues:
- Legal definition of religion
o There is no legal definition of religion (first amendment)
- Separation of state and church
o Important in theory → in the US, they are not separated
- Religion vs. politics
- Civil religion
o Religion dictates one’s civil values
o Example: inauguration speeches are filled with references to God → American
political rhetoric that feel the need to be approved by God
o Civil religion is never specific
o God = neutral term
o Broad concepts
o Constitutive factor
Puritan awakening and cultural core:
- Major cultural change → appearance in North America
- The other awakenings after the first also represent change
- First Great Awakening: 1730-60
o The puritan religion is dying out
o Silent acceptance and boredom
o Outstanding speakers (Jonathan Edwards)
o End of puritanism → Methodists, Baptists
o Plymouth Colony + Massachusetts Bay Colony
o Puritan heritage:
 Chosen nation
 Manifest destiny
 Jeremiah
 WASPism (White Anglo-Saxon Puritanism)
 o Rhode Island: religious freedom
o New England: puritan
o Virginia: Anglican
o Maryland: catholic
o Pennsylvania: William Penn → Quaker
 Religiously marginalized people (Germans, the Amish, the Quakers)
 Religious tolerance, equality, pacifists
 Philadelphia means “brotherly love”
o Southern area
o Anglican: Declaration of Independence; Episcopalian
o First Great Awakening: opened up to new religions
- Second Great Awakening:
o Connected to new American identity
o American realities become similar to religion
o Starts with Camping Grounds → Camp Meetings (preaching)
 They became an important social event
o Denominations grew (Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, Congregational,
Lutheran)
o American religions: Mormons, Jehova’s Witnesses, Adventists, Pentacostals,
Christian Scientists
o The Mormons:
 Joseph Smith
 Cult / sect at first
 Bible → Jesus Christ + their own book: The Book of Mormon
(continuation of the Bible)
 John Smith introduced polygamy → banned
 The Book of Mormon: story of the last tribe of Israel
 They got to America
 Native American Indians
 Blacks were kept out of church until the end of the civil war (dark colour
= sin) → correlation between skin colour and sin
 Racial hierarchy
 Science: cosmos with unlimited number of planets
 Health: they described the food pyramid; they don’t drink coffee / tea
(control mechanism); keen on doing sports
 Mormon: an angel
 Headquarter church: Salt Lake City
 Temples and meeting houses
 They believe in missionary movements
 Men go on mission for 2 years, women for 1,5 years
 They pay everything for themselves
 Well-organized, financially stable
 Encourage education
 10% of all their income should go to church
 Mormon businesses (e.g. Mariot Hotel)
 Support the poor; free of charge, 20 hours volunteer work / week
 o Jehova’s Witnesses:
 Keen on human life and health
 Education is not important
 Low church
- Third Great Awakening:
o End of 19th century
o US because it is highly urbanized
o Addresses immigration and urbanization
- Fourth Great Awakening:
o 1950s / 60s
o After WW2, importance of family
o Importing religions outside of Christianity with unusual practices (e.g. drugs,
music)
o Scientology
o Unification Church → mass marriages
o Heaven’s Gate
Statistics
- Biggest single denomination: Catholic
- The majority of the US is protestant
- South: Baptists
- Midwest: Lutherans
- Mormons
- Catholics

Population of the USA

Statistics:
- July 1, 2017: growth by about 3 million people
- California is the most highly populated
- New York: biggest single city
- The area of the USA is not evenly populated → important in election (federal level)
- 2017
o 83,4 % urban
o Median age: 37,8
o Utah: lowest median age (30,8), highest: Sumter County (67)
 42 or above: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, West-Virginia, Florida
o Asian and mixed-race people → two fastest growing segments
o Non-Hispanic whites: the only segment with more deaths than births
o Babies of colour ↔ Non-Hispanic white babies
US household types:
- Nuclear family: hetero married parents with children
o Ideal family model
o Most important unit of government
o Came about with capitalism
 before: extended family (more generations)
 o Americans are moving away from living in a nuclear family → other household
types
 Living alone is getting more and more common
- Social change within society → religious groups are concerned
- Homosexual marriage is legal
o The law allows it
o Depends on the church
o There is still differentiation
- The church has to be recognized by the state → legal marriage
- Marriage structure is based on lifestyle
o Long-term shared household → differences between heterosexual and gay
couples
Race:
- Racial division changed: 2000 (last)
o Arabs, Hispanic people → white
- Biggest groups:
o whites
o Hispanics
o African Americans
o Asians
o mixed race
o Native Americans
- No equality (e.g. Black Lives Matter movement)
o Whites
o Asian
o Latino
o Native American
o Black
o Mixed race
- Mixed race people: considered race traitors
- Racist society
o Becoming successful is harder for certain minorities
Class system:
- USA argues that it is an equal society → not true
- Upper class:
o their number is extremely low
o Above $150.000
o Shrinking
- Upper middle class:
o 15%
o professional jobs, higher level of education
- Lower middle class:
o 33%
o Education (BA degrees)
 - Working class:
o 30%
- Lower class:
o 17%
- Division between the poor and the rich + in the distribution of the profit
- Guy Standing: The Precariate: The New Dangerous Class (2012)
o Class system:
 Elite → salariat → proficians → “old” working class → precariat →
unemployed / lumped precariat
 Precariat = working class, immigrants, young educated people
o Financial security is important for everyone → it should be a right
o If not: anger, violence, far right parties
o Deliberative democracy → true coalition building, not just voting
- Student loan problems
o New York State: free public schools for citizens + Rhode Island, Oregon, San
Francisco
- Problems in education system → BUT: still the best tool for upward mobility
- Big social problem: homelessness
Social services:
- To help people in need
- Two sectors: private (one prepares themselves for) + public (government)
- Private:
o Healthcare (private health insurance)
o Retirement (IRA, 401K, Pension plans)
- Public sector :
o Contributory System → 1935: Social Security Act
 Social security = OASDI (old age, survivors, disability insurance)
 Pension: 62, 65-67
 Medicare: 65
 Unemployment benefit (26-29 weeks, 25% of salary)
o Non-contributory System → welfare → Social Safety Net
 13 programs
- Complementary sector
o Voluntary services: charity, foundations, churches
 The Federal Government
Government: consists of three levels
- Local level
o Head: the mayor
- State level:
o Head: the governor
- Federal level:
o Head: The President (in fact: only the head of the executive branch)
The three branches of government:
- Legislative
o The Congress
 House of Representatives
 The Senate
o The U.S. Capitol
- Executive
o The President → Vice President
o The White House
- Judicial
o Supreme Court
o The Supreme Court
Legislative:
- Representatives: represent the people
o 435 representatives
- The Senate: represents the states
o Each state has an equal number of senators
- Congressional elections
o Every 2 years → representatives
o Senators: for 6 years
 Divided: 1 / 3 of the senators re-elected every other year
Judicial:
- Supreme Court: relatively small
- Lifelong commitment → extremely important
- They deal only with constitutional issues
- They have the final say in decisions
The Checks and Balances: Separate branches of power working together

Legislative Branch (Congress)

- Writes the laws
- Confirms presidential appointments
- Ratifies treaties
- Grants money
Declares war

Executive Branch (The

President)
Judicial Branch (Supreme
- Proposes laws Court)
- Administers the laws
- Commands armed forces - Interprets the Constitution and
- Appoints ambassadors and other other laws
officials - Reviews lower-court decisions
- Conducts foreign policies
- Negotiates treaties

The Lawmaking Process:

Cabinet departments (Federal level):
State (1789) Health and Human Services (1953)
Treasury (1789) Housing and Urban Development (1965)
Justice (1789) Transportation (1966)
Defense (1789) Energy (1967)
Interior (1849) Education (1979)
Agriculture (1889) Veterans Affairs (1987)
Commerce (1913) Environmental Protection Agency (1990)
Labor (1913) Homeland Security (2002)

Cabinet-level officials:
- Vice President
- White House Chief of Staff
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Trade Representative
- Ambassador to the UN
- Chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisors
- Administrator of the Small Business Administration
Elections:
- Popular + electoral votes
- Every 4 years in November
- Inauguration: becoming President
The State Court System:
- State Supreme Court
- Superior Court
- Special Courts: juvenile, divorce, family, housing
- County, municipal, traffic, magistrate, etc.

The Legal System

The Court System
- Supreme Court
- Appellate Courts
- Trial courts
- Federal Courts
o Military courts
o Court of Veterans Appeals
o U.S. Tax Court
o Federal Administrative Agencies
Fields / Types of law
- Admiralty (maritime) law
- Bankruptcy law
- Business (corporate) law
- Civil rights law
- Entertainment law
- Environmental law
- Etc.
Major types of crime:
- Misdemeanor vs. felony
- Against
o Person: assault, battery, harassment, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault, child
abuse
o Property: arson, blackmail, burglary, fraud, theft, vandalism, credit card fraud,
computer crime
o Public order: drug cultivation, manufacturing, trafficking, possession
o State: tax evasion, espionage, treason, conspiracy
o Justice: bribery
Types of Trials:
- Civil case: a trial that consists of a disagreement between two or more people or
businesses
 - Criminal case: a trial involving a person who has been accused of committing a
misdemeanor
- Juvenile case
- Traffic case
Basic Trial Procedure:
- Defendant, defense lawyer, prosecutor, foreman, judge, witnesses, Adversary system
- Selection of the jury:
o 6-12 jurors
- Opening statements
- Presentation of evidence and testimony of witnesses
o Direct and cross-examination of witnesses
o Objection → judge sustains or overrules it
- Closing arguments
- Jury instructions
- Deliberation
o Deliberation room to reach the verdict
o Jury elect a foreman / foreperson
o Unanimous verdict vs. standstill (hung jury) → mistrial
o Verdict → punishment
Basic forms of punishment:
- Non-custodial
o restorative justice (e.g. apology)
o restitution and community service (to the injured party)
o fine (to the government)
o probation (not increased)
- Custodial
o concurrent vs. consecutive / cumulative (+)
o suspended
Imprisonment
- Parole (early release)
- Capital punishment
- Pardon
o Governor
o President
Purpose of sentence:
- To punish
- To deter
- To rehabilitate
- To reintegrate
- → Prison system
- → Post-imprisonment
o Criminal record → only in the given state
 o Ex-offender
o Habitual offender → more than once
o Statute of limitation → the verdict itself

The USA’s economy

Economic theories
- Laissez-faire: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)
o But! unemployment, inflation, recession, depression
- Keynesian theory: John Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money (1936)
o Business cycles – balance between aggregate demand and productive capacity
o Government: stabilize by controlling aggregate demand through
 Fiscal policies (government spending and taxation)
 Issue of government bands and securities
 Monetary policies (money supply)
 The Federal Reserve System (change of reserve and interest)
 But! 1970s, recession, 1973, oil crisis
- Supply-side economics: Milton Friedman → Reaganomics
o Monetarism: lower inflation by increasing supply → demand is secondary
o Tax cuts (income and capital gains tax rates) and reduced government
regulations
o But! Recession of 2008
o → Return to Keynes: fiscal stimulus, monetary policy expansion
o → Industrial bailout (especially car industry)
- Problems in the 1990s:
o Fake profitability
o Overspending thinking that the increase in economy is long-term
o Credit cards not getting paid → huge debt
 Credit history → can be built up using credit cards → the system
encouraged credit card usage even if someone had much money
 Credit limit → how much one can borrow from their credit cards
 Bankruptcy was completely normal → part of capitalism
Economic structure
- Free market: the USA’s economy
- Mixed
- Planned: the former Soviet countries
Government’s presence in the economy
- Policy, regulations
- Direct assistance, tariffs, aids
- Employer (postal services, education, defense, police, justice, etc.)
- + taxation, fiscal and monetary policies
o Taxation: important in the USA; at least on three levels: local, state, federal
Economic Ingredients
 - Natural resources
- Labor supply (education, age, legal status, part-time / full-time) – 154, 5 million
o Farming, forestry, fishing: 0,75%
o Manufacturing, extraction, transportation and crafts: 20,3%
o Managerial, professional and technical: 37,3%
o Sales and office: 24,2%
o Other services: 17,6%
- Technology, research, development
- Entrepreneurial and managerial groups
- Consumer
Company types:
- Sole trader (egyéni vállalkozó)
- Partnership: association of people who carry on a business jointly and share the income
and the risks
- Company: incorporated entity with an identity separate to the owners
- Trust: obligation placed on one or more persons known as Trustees to hold property or
income for others known as beneficiaries
Finances
- Accounting, insurance, corporate finance, investment management, banking, etc.
- Banks, credit unions (account; saving [certificate]; loan; credit)
- Securities (stocks, bonds, debentures, etc.)
- Stock markets:
o NYSE (securities)
o Chicago Board of Trade (commodities → futures, options)
- Financial problems:
o Take overs (acquisition)
o Merge (melt into one)
o Buy out (of controlling share)
o Liquidate (terminate)
Measure of economic production (2013)
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Gross National Product (GNP)
- Credit Rating
- Inflation
- Unemployment
- Exports
- Imports
- Revenue
- Expenses
- Gross external debt
- Median annual personal income
- Median annual household income
- Poverty rate
 US Foreign Policy
Period I: 1776-1800 – independence and neutrality
- 1796: Washington’s Farewell Address
- Neutrality; trade relations (economy), avoid alliances (political)
Period II: 1800-1914 – expansionism
- 1823: Monroe Doctrine → isolationism
o Non-interference (separate spheres)
o Non-colonization (in the future)
o Non-intervention (independent, autonomous states)
- 1904: Roosevelt Corollary
o US: right to intervene in internal affairs of Latin American States
Period III: 1914-1945 – move to internationalism
- Wilsonian Principles – 14 points
- Right for self-determination; the League of Nations
Period IV: 1945-1992 – Cold War
- Munich paradigm (1938) →
- 1947: Truman Doctrine
o Domino effect → policy of containment (of Soviet threat)
 Support Greece and Turkey financially
 aid: 1948-51, Marshall plan (US $13 billion)
 armament → 1949, NATO
- Vietnam paradigm: military involvement replaced by 4Ds: diplomacy, détente,
disarmament, development aid
o First war that the USA has lost → shock
o Anti-war demonstrations
Period V:
- 2002: Powell Doctrine
o preventive defense; armed forces for vital national interest; with high probability
of success
 The US Education
- Levels: federal, state and local
- Private / public
- School districts (public); school boards → governing body of the local school; parents
have a say
- No central curriculum, only minimum requirements
o The majority of the classes is determined by the school board
- Compulsory education from the age of 5 (kindergarten)
- Only private nursery schools
- Schooling:
o Preschool / Daycare
o Primary education:
 Kindergarten (K)
 Grade school
 Home schooling (3% of ages 5-17 in 2013/14)
o Secondary education
 High school (magnet schools → talent schools) → diploma → SAT
(Scholastic Achievement Test – supposed to measure skills, not
knowledge)
o Post-secondary education:
 Vocational schools → certificate
o Higher education
 Community colleges, colleges, universities, schools (medical, law,
business)
 Degree programs: undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate
 Degrees: associate (AA), bachelor’s (BA), certificate, master’s (MA,
MS, MBA, Med, MFA), doctoral, PhD
 Continuous education / adult education
 State / private
 Ivy League: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton,
Yale, University of Pennsylvania → oldest universities
 7 sisters: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliff, Smith, Wassar,
Wellesley → established for women
 Fraternities and sororities